In Season: Smashed Potatoes

By Morgan Lee
Hi again! Eating real food and food that is kind to the environment is one of my passions so I wanted to share some easy ways to do this with college students. Eating local and in season produce is not only so much tastier, it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. When food doesn’t have to travel thousands of miles, it doesn’t cause emissions from trucks, trains and planes.

Welcome to the time of year where literally nothing is in season. I searched the shelves at Whole Foods high and low, but couldn’t find anything that was both grown locally and in season. I decided to provide you all with a meal this week that, while not entirely “in season” is still an easy and better for the environmental alternative to many conventional foods. This week I found chives and artisan potatoes that were grown in our area of the midwest.

As I discussed last column, these options still might not be as environmentally friendly as they could be due to the need for greenhouses and heating, but they are a better alternative. If you just can’t make it through the winter without some produce (I know it’s hard for me), then it is still better to choose local potatoes (I used the brand “What about Bob’s Potatoes”) than those from Idaho or Washington, for example, which would still require heating and transportation by truck across the country to get to your plate. Similarly, both the chives and potatoes were organically produced which can drastically save on fossil fuel emissions and chemical pollution.

Without further ado, this week I give you… Garlic and Chive Smashed Potatoes

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons butter (would be easy to make this vegan by substituting an oil or vegan butter)

1 Teaspoon minced garlic

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh chives

2 Pounds baby red, fingerling or other small potato (the variety I used was Austrian Crescent Potatoes)

Bring a medium size pot of salted water to a boil on the stove. In the meantime, rinse and scrub your potatoes and cut off any bad spots.

Once the water is boiling, add the potatoes and boil for 15 minutes or until soft.

While potatoes are boiling, preheat oven to 400 ℉ and melt butter in a microwave safe bowl. Stir garlic and chives into melted butter.

Once the potatoes are done, drain them and lay them out on a foil-lined cookie sheet (just to prevent too much sticking). Using the bottom of a glass, push down on the bottoms so they start to flatten. Once potatoes are all flattened, pour the melted butter mixture evenly over potatoes

Bake potatoes for 20 minutes or until they are beginning to crisp on the bottom and brown slightly.

Finally, enjoy your potatoes with salt and pepper to taste (and parmesan if you’re a cheese addict like me).

As always, if you have any questions about my recipes or ideas, feel free to contact me at morganlee2021@u.northwestern.edu. I started this column with the hope that other students would be willing to eat more sustainably sourced and plant-based foods once they saw that “it is so easy a college student can do it.” Here’s to our health and the planet’s!